Bandar Seri Begawan - Culture plays a crucial role towards the consolidation of a caring Asean community of mutual cooperation.

This was said by the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports (MCYS), Pehin Orang Kaya Pekerma Laila Diraja Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Hazair bin Haji Abdullah, during the fifth meeting of the Asean Ministers Responsible for Culture and Arts (AMCA) in Singapore on May 26.

"Culture is also recognised by the world as a source of enrichment, sustainable development, eliminating poverty and empowering communities to actively contribute in cultural development," he said at the meeting, according to a press statement from the ministry.

Sharing culture and heritage of the region, the minister explained, is also important in overcoming the influence of extremism and other challenges.

Touching on the contribution of culture to economic development, the minister said that in Asia, despite the global economic crisis, the media and entertainment industry contribute approximately nine per cent to the annual compounded growth rate of the region.

He said that with this in mind, it is imperative for Asean countries to evaluate and strategise towards ensuring that the cultural sector will continue to contribute to growth in the Asean region.

Asean member states will be able to identify, evaluate, maintain and exploit cultural activities for aesthetic and economic benefits to the Asean citizens.

In support of the Asean Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) Blueprint, Pehin Dato Seri Setia Awg Hj Hazair said that it is very important that the awareness of Asean and a sense of community - both of which are backed by the blueprint - are aimed at creating a sense of belonging, strengthening unity through cultural diversity and enhance a deeper understanding of the history, religion and the Asean civilisation.

The minister also stressed that the preservation of Asean culture is important towards maintaining cultural diversity to ensure that the Asean communities will continue to survive in the long run, where Asean has upheld the principle of "Unity in Diversity".

He then went on to share the steps that have been taken by Brunei in making use of cultural knowledge and integrating it with innovation to develop the local creative economy.

To this end, he said that Brunei is preparing for branding and innovative marketing strategies where intellectual property is a key component in the form of national policy making for creative industry.

Touching on cultural values that are now faced with a world that is constantly changing and closely aligned, Pehin Dato Seri Setia Awg Hj Hazair explained how culture does not need to be static but must have the ability to grow with time and technology, rather than against it.

Towards protecting and developing culture and heritage, Pehin Dato Seri Setia Awg Hj Hazair stressed the need to involve the youth so that they not only understand but are also aware of their culture, but more importantly absorb those cultural values through their daily lives and hence pass them on to future generations.

In line with that, he said that the role of educational institutions in spreading these cultural values is of utmost importance.

Furthermore, Pehin Dato Seri Setia Awg Hj Hazair also touched on the involvement of women in the development and growth of the creative economy through culture, saying that women play a significant role in maintaining and ensuring culture, art and traditions are still practised in today's community.

"By appreciating and empowering youth and women through culture and development activities, we will accelerate the achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals," he said.

Also part of Brunei's delegation was Awang Haji Mohd Rozan bin Dato Paduka Haji Mohd Yunos, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports along with a number of the ministry's officers.

The fifth AMCA meeting was officially opened by Dr Yaakob Ibrahim, the Minister of Information, Communication and Arts for the Republic of Singapore, who also launched the logo for Singapore as Asean's second City of Culture for the year 2012-2013 after the Philippines.

This fifth AMCA meeting saw the ministers welcome the AMCAs achievements; particularly the role of the AMCA in realising the primary fields contained within the Asean Declaration on Unity in Cultural Diversity Towards Strengthening the Asean Community and the Master Plan on Asean Connectivity, both of which are important bases for achieving the Asean Community 2015.

In upholding and supporting the two aforementioned documents, the AMCA ministers agreed to further strengthen Asean cooperation in the field of culture and arts with emphasis and focus on human resource development, preservation and conservation of cultural heritage and development of Asean as well as the development of small and medium-sized cultural enterprises (SMCE).

The AMCA ministers also approved the draft of the Work Plan on Enhancing Asean Plus Three Cooperation in Culture.

As this is the first meeting of the AMCA with China, AMCA ministers have also approved the concept paper of the Asean-China Cooperation on Culture and the Arts.

In a separate event, Brunei's Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports along with other AMCA ministers made an official visit to Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore in his office at the palace.

Pehin Dato Seri Setia Awg Hj Hazair also had the opportunity to attend the opening ceremony for the fifth Asean Festival of Arts at Singapore's National Museum, where he watched performances from Asean countries, including Brunei.

Monday, May 21, 2012

The Museum Department recently celebrated the International Museum Day. The celebration was the normal one of those launching days thing. What struck me the most were the exhibits on the side of the Museum foyer. What the museum folks did was to show the old stuff and its modern equivalent. It really struck us that we have not changed that much. Modern stuff maybe, some with electricity but in the long run, things have not changed. Here are three of them:-﻿

Sunday, May 20, 2012

I remembered when I first started blogging, one of my earliest entry was about the state of our signboards. Most of our small businesess in Brunei are run by our South Asians friends and also by our ASEAN friends and these two groups are not Malay speakers. There have been too many signboards in broken Malay and broken English.

This particular signboard brought to my attention by a Malaysian fb friend is not in Brunei but in Kelantan which can be interpreted as either advertising human trafficking in another of our south Asian friends at a particular road in Kota Bahru or a misspelling the sale of the word Banglo located at that particular road in Kota Bahru. Obviously it is the latter and it is a mispelling (I hope!). I am a bit worried that this mistake can equally happen to us in Brunei if we are not vigilant.

Note: An alternative view. One of my colleagues said this could be an example of brilliant advertising by the obvious misspelling.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Someone posted this photograph on fb. I have to admit I thought I have seen every photo of Seria there is out there but this one I have not seen. This was taken on 15 September 1954 where Jalan Sultan Omar Ali is closed to make way for a bazaar. You can make out the Marina Cinema at the end of the road. Most of the shops or not just the shops but the shop building has now disappeared and replaced with modern buildings. Note the Union Jack flag flying together with the Brunei flag.

This is Seria from another angle taken roughly about the same time as the first photograph. In this photograph you can see the houses in the background.

Friday, May 18, 2012

I found this photograph on the British Imperial War Museum website. It is an interesting photograph taken during the aftermath of the 1962 Rebelion in Brunei. It is a British soldier patroling on the roof of the State Secretariat Building in Jalan Elizabeth II.

You can make out the four British helicopters hovering on the background above the SOAS Mosque. You can also see the old Bandar Police Station to the left of the photograph. That police station obviously is no longer there.

The caption of the photograph from the Imperial War Museum website which gives more detail about the soldier and the British unit that was stationed in Brunei during that time, is as follows:

"A trooper of the Queen's Royal Irish Hussars on guard on the roof of the Government Secretariat Building, following the rebel uprising. In the background is the golden domed mosque in the centre of Brunei town, and flying over are four helicopters from HMS ALBION"

Thursday, May 17, 2012

I never get tired of searching for the first ever Brunei's paper money which is this A series issued in 1967. Everytime I see it and with the right prices I would get them. These I bought off the ebay with ebay international prices and when I won it, I was quite surprised to see that the seller lived in Brunei. Anyway he contacted me and gave me his telephone number and we managed to save ourselves from paying postage costs. The seller lived in Tutong and I found out later that he was related to one of my aunties husband. Small Brunei world.

For some reasons, these notes still appeal to me and even though over the years the prices have increased considerably, I still continue to acquire them. I personally have not used these notes as these were issued in 1967 and by the year 1972 when I have started going to school, the portraits have changed to that of our present Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah. Of course in those days, none of us carry dollar notes to school. Only the wealthiest kid probably had dollar notes. I was given a 10 cent coin and it was tied to the corner of my handkerchief so that I will not lose it. By the time I was in the upper primary, I had about 40 cents I think. The value of money being what it is today, most kids have a few dollars a day.

Anyway, I digress. The Begawan notes were in their days interchangeable with both Singapore and Malaysia. It wasn't until the 1970s when the Malaysian economy was booming, the Malaysian left the interchangeability agreement. For a while, the Malaysian dollar had a higher value before it slowly went down until the financial crisis in 1998 when the Brunei dollar were equal to twice the Malaysian dollar.

If you have anymore of these Begawan notes and are willing to sell them, let me know.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

When I arrived at the office today, I saw this book from the Economic Planning and Development Department. This is the preliminary report of Brunei's Population and Housing Census which was done last year. I still remembered the young lady who came over to our house and asked all these questions. I sure hope that half an hour that we gave will contribute towards knowing much more about Brunei.

This book has some interesting data and it leaves a lot of questions as well. Since this is only a preliminary data, I can't wait until the statistics people analyse the detailed data and tell us more things about Brunei.

The major finding is that last year we were just short of 400,000 people. it was 393,162 with 202,668 guys and that leaves 190,494 for the opposite gender. These 393,162 make up 68,208 households thus making each household about 6 people (5.8 to be exact). The most interesting data that is that 81,903 houses and apartments and other living quarters and surprisingly only 65,437 are occupied. One fifth of all houses, apartments and living quarters in Brunei is not occupied! I would love to see those detailed data and imagine the policy implications for building more and more houses by both the government and private sectors.

The other thing is that the population in the Brunei/Muara is getting more dense. In 1971, there were 127 people per sq km in Brunei/Muara. By 2011, there are now 490 people in the same size area. In Belait it is a very loose 22 people per sq km, 38 in Tutong and 7 in Temburong. Out of those 393,162 people, 279,842 are in Brunei/Muara, 60,609 in Belait, 43,855 in Tutong and 8,856 in Temburong. Though our growth rate has gone down to 1.7% per annum which is not enough to sustain our population. Mind you, all these statistics include everyone in Brunei at that point in time so it includes all the non-Bruneians.

It is interesting to see that the Mukim Berakas B has the largest number of population at 41,117, Gadong B 34,181, Gadong A 33,352, KB 33,067, Sengkurong 31,549 and Kilanas 24,468. The largest kampongs are generally those with housing estates but of the non-housing estates, Kampong Beribi has 7,694 people and followed closely by Mata-Mata 6,699.

Anyway, get the book. Go to JPKE and enjoy the preliminary statistics.

Monday, May 14, 2012

[My article below was published in my column, The Golden Legacy on The Brunei Times 8th May 2012 edition. It is based on a blog entry I wrote about a couple of weeks earlier.]

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Brunei 300 Years Ago
by Rozan Yunos

There are many descriptions of Brunei in the past. Before the 15th century, historians would find many of them in the Chinese and Arabic records. After the 15th century, with the arrival of the Europeans in the region, the European also wrote extensively about the Southeast Asian region and Brunei. The most famous was the description of Brunei written by Antonio Pigafetta, the Italian Chronicler on board of Magellan’s ships circumnavigating the world.

Pigafetta’s famous description of Brunei’s Kampong Ayer 500 years ago “…the city is built in the sea, the King’s palace and the houses of the principal persons excepted. It contains twenty-five thousand hearths or families. The houses are built of wood upon large piles, to keep them from the water ...”

However there were other equally useful descriptions as well though written later. One of them was by a Dutch minister by the name of Francois Valentijn. He was born on 17 April 1666 in Dordrecht, Netherlands. He studied Theology and Philosophy at the University of Leden and University of Uterecht.

Valentijn worked with the Dutch East Indies Company known by its Dutch initials VOC as a missionary first at the age of 19 and served from 1685 to 1694 before returning back to the East Indies later on as an Army Chaplain at the age of 39 where he served from 1705 to 1713. He was a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church. He died in 1727.

In the total of the 16 years that Valentijn spent in the East Indies, he collected a lot of information about the East Indies and the Far East including Borneo and Brunei.

Before he died, he wrote a massive work comprising of five parts and published them in his 8 volume book entitled “Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien” (“Old and New East-India”) where he described about the history of the Dutch East India Company and about other countries of the Far East. In those eight volume works, there were also many illustrations including the most up to date then map of the Indies which he had accessed from the company VOC. He also referred to many other writers’ research and works. Valentijn’s work was published between 1724 and 1726.

A part of his works which contained information and description about Borneo and Brunei was translated by S.A. Dovey and was published in The Brunei Museum Journal Volume 4 Number 2 (1978). These were obtained from the first three chapters of Vol. III Pt. 2 from a photostat copy provided by the London University. It is not known whether Valentijn himself came to Brunei or whether he obtained the information from another traveler.

Of Borneo, Valentijn wrote that “… there are four or five kings and the same number of capital cities. They are known as the Kingdoms of Banjar Massin, of Sucadana, of Landa, of Sambas, of Hermata, of Jathoe and of Borneo …”

Valentijn noted that the King of Banjar Massin thought himself to be the “… most powerful and well known …” as the “… King of Banjar Massin calls himself Emperor of Borneo … although he has no power over the other kings … from time to time he has tried to overpower the King of Succadana …”

For Brunei, Valentijn wrote “... further north or rather N.N.W. resides the King of Borneo in a village of the same name. This village is also situated on a very large river with a collosal bay, protected to the east and west by a reef with 3 small islands just in front of it. There are another three islands 12½ miles outside the reef, Poelo Tiga and another one named Monpaciam as well as a small unnamed island. Near these island is another reef extending itself in northeasterly-northwesterly directions …”

According to the notes in The Brunei Museum Journal, Valentijn mistakenly identify Poelo Tiga or Tigaon for Labuan when he described Poelo Tiga. Monpaciam according to the same notes in The Museum Journal referred to Pulau Keraman.

Valentijn also wrote that the King of Borneo was considered by some people as “… the head king of the island and his village the capital city. This village is situate in a large swamp, which is inundated most of the time, so that it is necessary to use boats to reach the houses, about 2,000 – 3,000 in number, which are made of wood. The people are armed with bows and arrows. Whoever gets hit by their arrows is usually a dead man. They are strong, well-built men …”

According to Valentijn, Brunei was considered the richest kingdom in the whole island of Borneo. He wrote that “… the general opinion is that the people of the village of Borneo are the richest of the whole island, not only because of the presence of large quantities of gold, but also because the quality of this gold is higher, being of a purer and better alloy then found anywhere else. They also have the best camphor in the whole of Indies and other sought after riches, which are profitably traded, either for money or cloth …”

Valentijn also noted that the boats or perahus of Brunei were beautiful and strong and had an interesting design with a large tent in the middle. His description runs as follows “… the people of Borneo also have extremely beautiful strong prahus some of them 8 to 10 feet in width and 40 to 50 feet long with a large tent built in the middle and manned by 30 to 40 seamen …” This boat design is reminiscent of the Sultan Bolkiah ship design which is depicted at the lagoon of the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien mosque.

The most significant change between what was identified by Pigafetta and Valentijn is the number of houses in Kampong Ayer. Pigafetta in 1521 said that there were about 25,000 families but by 1700, Valentijn recorded only about two to three thousand houses.

Valentijn also wrote about another much earlier visit by another Dutchman by the name of Olivier van Noord in 1600. That visit will be covered in a future column.

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, 12 May 2012 - THE protection of cultural diversity is a priority for Brunei Darussalam, stated the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports on Friday, during the Cultural Diversity Ministerial Forum in the Asia Pacific Region held in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

‘‘Despite being a small country with a population of 400 thousand, we are proud to state that Brunei Darussalam can still offer cultural diversity that reflects the variety of ethnic groups which make-up the composition of our population,’’ he said.

‘‘However, what’s more important is that culture is not only about the economy. It’s more than that. Culture is the ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’ of a country. Moreover, culture is also symbolic of a country’s national identity,’’ he commented.

The three-day forum, which commenced on Wednesday is aimed at achieving the main objective concept of the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.

In addition, the forum is also intended to encourage the discussion and exchange of ideas among the countries within Asia Pacific. Among the issues highlighted during the forum related to efforts for the integration of cultural elements in the agenda of national development and the importance of governmental involvement towards supporting the artists within the growing cultural industry.

The forum also underlined policies that encourage the progress of cultural diversity in Asia Pacific, as well as the role of women towards the diversification of cultural expression.

YB Pehin Dato Hj Hazair also had the opportunity to conduct a courtesy call on the Bangladeshi Minister of Youth and Sports, Mohd Ahad Ali Sarkar, at the Pan Pacific Sonargoan Hotel. During the courtesy call, both ministers discussed views on bilateral cooperation in the field of youth and sports.

Monday, May 07, 2012

National Family Day celebrations were held throughout Brunei Darussalam yesterday. The newspapers reported the enthuasism that was visible throughout the country. Next week we still have the Belait District continuing their activities of family day. So don't forget to visit Kuala Belait next week. Tutong District will continue having family days for their Mukims.

Sunday, May 06, 2012

Happy National Family Day! Today is the first National Family Day with many more to come. His Majesty has consented that the first Sunday of every May from henceforth will be the day when we celebrate National Family Day.

Today we have the beautiful family photo from Amalina's family celebrating National Family Day. I hope everyone out there will be as happy as Amalina with her family.

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Activities and places where they are held for today are in the poster above. Please come and join everyone to celebrate National Family Day. Happy Family Day!

Saturday, May 05, 2012

I wrote about a description of Brunei in the 1700 the other day (which you can link here http://www.bruneiresources.blogspot.com/2012/04/description-of-brunei-in-1700.html) from a book written by Rev Dr Francis Valentyn who was with the Dutch Reformed Church and was a missionary to the Indies in the late 1600s and early 1700s. He collected a lot of material and published in eight volumes entitled Oud en Niew Oust Indien (The Old and New East Indies) sometimes between 1724 and 1726.

Let me continue what else he wrote about Brunei in the past:

"The general opinion is that the people of the village of Borneo are the richest of the whole island, not only because of the presence of large quantities of gold, but also because of the quality of the gold is higher, being of a purer and better alloy then found anywhere else. They also have the best camphor in the whole of Indies and other sought after precious riches, which are profitably traded, either for money or cloth. The people of Borneo also have extremely beautiful strong perahus some of them 8 to 10 feet in width and 40 to 50 feet long with a large tent built in the middle and manned by 30 to 40 seamen. Inland they have huge forests with good trees and there is no labour problem, so this area is heavily populated."

In the second chapter of the book, Valentyn wrote about the visit of the first Dutchman who came to Brunei in 1600:

"The first Dutchman arriving at the island was Olivier van Noord. He arrived on Dec 26, in they ear 1600, with a ship called the Mauritius and anchored in the large bay of the village of Borneo. In front of the bay he found some islands inhabited by fishemen and about 2 to 3 miles in size. The sea here is rich in fish. The king keeps a flat of armed prahus in these waters to protect the fishermen, to keep the river free of pirates and to keep him informed of happenings, as the village of Borneo is about 2 to 3 miles up the river."

There were more description about the trade between van Noord and the Bruneians. I will post these in the future.

Thursday, May 03, 2012

With the National Family Day celebrations coming up (6th May 2012) and also the International Family Day (15th May 2012), we are trying for people to come up and share with us portraits of their families.

So here are my latest favourites of my very own small family.

If you have photos of your family that you want to showcase, email me and for the next few blogs I will put them up. Happy Family Day!

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

The General Guide to Jawi Spelling issued by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Brunei

Sometimes too much knowledge is a scary thing. I was asked to launch the National Workshop on Jawi Spelling System organised by the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) on Monday 30 April 2012. I stayed for the first paper.

My knowledge on jawi especially how it is used here in Brunei suddenly trebled. I have always been curious as I do know that there are several ways of spelling in jawi and you are still correct. The one that got me was when TAP was formed in January 1993. In November 1992, I asked for the jawi for Tabung Amanah Pekerja to be written so that we can print our letterheads. It was done by someone in the Religious Affairs. The spelling for Pekerja was "pa-kap-ra-jim". That ran out sometimes towards the end of 1993 and I asked for a reprint. This time we changed the jawi slightly and I think one of my staff asked DBP and the spelling for Pekerja was "pa-kap-ra-jim-alif" and I asked why was the alif added. My staff said that that's the way it should be spelt, without the alif is old spelling.

Anyway, fast forward to nineteen years later, I heard more interesting things. Jawi is not perfect. The Malays in the past (like a thousand years ago) used the very stick like ancient writings, first Rencong, then Pallava and lastly Kawi. When Islam came to the region around the 15th century, it was found that it was too difficult to read Arabic with the older writings, so the Arabic script was borrowed and modified. It was not just the writing but the Malay language itself changed radically with infusion of Arabic, Persian and Hindi vocabulary, introduction of Arabic rhetorical style and changes in grammar based on oral speech. However there were many words in the Malay language which can't be spelt using the original Arabic letters. So over time, several new characters were added which are sa, ga, pa, nga and cha. Apparently even these were not enough, as the 'vi' sound is not there. The 'vi' sound as in volvo is not there originally because there was no Malay word but with infusion of words like volvo, there was a need for the 'vi' character. In the 1990s, the 'wau' with a little dot at the top was used.

What is the major problem with Jawi and why the need to have the workshop to look into this matter?

First of all, there are issues with the current system. The letter 'wau' is used for w, o and u. So when you try to spell borong which is 'ba-wau-ra-wau-nga' but burung is also spelled 'ba-wau-ra-wau-nga'. Other words like koko and kuku, biru and biro, gulung and golong etc. In fact in some words like terowong, the wau became predominant as 'ta-ra-wau-wau-wau-nga'. We have the problems with 'ya' with spelling of words like pin and pen, bila and bela etc. There are also issues with spellings like lima is spelled 'lam-ya-mim' but 'Lim' is also spelled the same way. Muka is spelled 'mim-wau-kaf' and so is 'Mok'. A real life example was a company called Lim Mok Sen but in Jawi, it was read Muka Lima Sen. There are issues too. I leave it to the experts.

Why bother? Jawi is not surprisingly in a decline. Brunei is about the only country practising it widely together with one or two states in Malaysia and probably one or two in Sumatra. If we lose Jawi, we lose the most important symbol of our identity.

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

How many Bruneians remembered using this $1 Brunei paper money? This one is the second of Brunei's money issued in 1972. However this is still the A Series similar in design to the first of Brunei's money - the only difference is the photograph where the first A Series potrayed Sultan Haji Omar Ali and the second A Series potrayed Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah. This particular A Series was issued from 1972 to 1989. In 1989, the B Series was issued.

This particular 'specimen' paper note has no value - in other words, if you have it, you can't spend it. However the value to collectors because this specimen paper note is very rare, is very high indeed. At the moment, this particular note has a starting bid of US$1,999.00 and therefore the possibility that the actual buyer will be paying much more than this. I am a collector of Brunei currency notes but at this price level, I have to bow out. If you are bidding for it, all the very best of luck to you.

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I have noticed a number of comment entries asking me to email them back. Generally I do not keep track of the comments in the blog entries. For those who want to get in touch with me, please email me: admin(at)bruneiresources(dot)com. Thank you.

The Golden Warisan Volume 1 (Republished)

THE GOLDEN WARISAN

The Golden Warisan Volume 1 has been republished by Dewan Bahasa and Pustaka Brunei Darussalam. The book is currently available at all Dewan Bahasa and Pustaka libraries at the price of B$10 each.

Our Brunei Heritage

OUR BRUNEI HERITAGE

Rozan Yunos's 3rd book entitled "Our Brunei Heritage" is currently on sale in Brunei at Booker International; at Select Books in Singapore; and online at http://www.selectbooks.com.sg. This book is a compilation of 51 articles from the author's Brunei Times' Golden Legacy column for the year 2009. History teachers in Brunei are welcome to contact the author to get their free copies.

His two earlier books "The Golden Warisan Brunei Darussalam Volume 1 & Volume 2" containing almost 100 articles from his weekly column are also available in Brunei from Booker International and in Singapore from Select Books at 51, Armenian Street and online from http://www.selectbooks.com.sg/.

Copies are also available on loan from the British Library and the US Library of Congress as well as from Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Brunei.

The Golden Warisan Volume 1

The Golden Warisan Volume 2

Food for thought

Our lives begin to end the day we became silent about things that matter. Martin Luther King Jr.

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I have one wish - all Bruneians be well informed so that everyone can make informed decisions. I try to bring information to the best of my ability within the constraints I faced in this blog since December 2005. These postings represent my personal thoughts and experiences. I hope you enjoyed them.